Warbird Information Exchange

I was thinking of creating a Warbird Legend Hall Of Fame. this HoF would be devoted to those figures in Warbird history that helped preserve aircraft or whose actions resulted in aircraft being saved from the scrapper. Those individuals voted into the Hall Of Fame would have thier image and brief history include in a yet too be created website.

The point of the Hall Of Fame would be to preserve the history of the subject we all love and provide an educational portal into the history of Warbirds.

Opinions? Suggestions? Suggestions for initial members of the Hall Of Fame? Let me know what you think.

_________________
Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry

Be civil, be polite, be nice.... or be elsewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------
This site is brought to you with the support of members like you. If you find this site to be of value to you,
consider supporting this forum and the Warbirds Resource Group with a VOLUNTARY subscription
For as little as $2/month you can help ($2 x 12 = $24/year, less than most magazine subscriptions)
So If you like it here, and want to see it grow, consider helping out.



Thanks to everyone who has so generously supported the site. We really do appreciate it.

Follow us on Twitter! @WIXHQ

Oh-Oh-Oh-Me first!

Mike Coutches


Walt should be in the first inductees also.

_________________
DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Jack Flaherty
Bob Sturges
Cal Butler
George Kreitzberg (remember all those F7Fs)
John Paul
Bob Bean

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Ed Maloney

Very cool idea who's time has come IMO.

Walter Soplata
Mantz / Tallman
Bob Bean without a doubt

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

All of the above plus:

Fred Dyson, Ed Jurist, Ernie Simmons, Frank Tallman, Bob Diemert, Lloyd Nolen, Dave Tallichet, Stephen Grey, Doug Arnold, Ray Hanna, Lord Strathallan, Cole Palen, Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth. Maybe Paul Poberezny for helping nurture Warbirds of America.

But Scott, maybe the CRITERIA for inclusion would be more interesting than the mere naming of names. My suggestions are oriented toward:

1. People who preserved (without necessarily restoring) significant numbers of a/c from the immediate postwar years through 1975;

2. People who started major restoration shops and/or collections pre-1975 that resulted in the preservation of significant numbers of a/c.

I would be much more selective about including people who became active after 1975 because although that is when interest in warbirds really took off, and countless more people have become heavily involved since then, without the foundation laid by folks who were active prior to 1975, they really wouldn't have had much to work with.

Some further questions to ponder:

1. Would people involved in saving large numbers of static, rather than flying, a/c be included? (Ken Molson, Paul Garber)

2. Would people whose main contribution is as PILOTS be included? (Paul Day, Bob Hoover)

August

Howard Pardue for bringing the Honduran Corsairs back to the US.

Actually, in this connection it is probably worth noting that a Warbirds Hall of Fame already exists:

http://www.warbirds-eaa.org/who/hof.html

Don Plumb / Jerry Billing for saving and bringing Spitfire TE308 to North America. Also Jerry has told me of a man from Brantford by the name of Jack Arnold that was the person who found and saved the Russell Hurricane from ?

Cheers Dave C

Bill Ross, Earl & Ray Reinert, Preston Parrish, Lefty Gardner, Mark Hurd,
Harry Doan, Wilson Edwards, how about Hawkins & Powers or Sis-Q Flying service

When did the Whittington Brothers become players ?

Gotta add Lefty Gardner and Steve Hinton.

Please excuse my poor memory...

the gentleman who put together the Battle of Britan "air force".

The studio exuctive who "green lit' Catch 22...

and the studio executive who green lit Tora, Tora, Tora.

These three motion pictures "saved" specific a/c and inspired many of the current generation of Warbird enthusiasts.

Frank Kurtz, who saved Swoose, twice.

Ditto with the person/people who initially saved the Belle many years ago.

Paul Garber & Hap Arnold for saving some iconic a/c by working together even if they weren't aways acting in concert (or vice versa).

Various publishers of Aeroplane.

Just trying to think of the not well known and/or more recently overlooked people.

...enough for now...

You also have Ray Stutsman for bring a whole bunch of T-6's back from Spain,(one figure I heard is that he imported over 50 of them) plus his restorations of several other aircraft namely the P-47 Little Demon.

_________________
Col Craig Duck
Life Member CAF
Life Member YAF
Life Member EAA

How about people putting a name AND a paragraph about why - and not a sentence or query.

It'd actually build a hall of fame that way, and stop the shotgun naming which really is of minimal use, beyond a voting for favourites basis.

Probably need a few biographical facts too - name, some dates (critically the period of involvement) nationality or country of operation, types or organisations involved with, role, and what task they fulfilled.

_________________
Raven